


Old Fashioned is What She Wants (She's got Plenty of Modern to Share)

by Chaerring



Series: Sleeping With the Team Captains and Other Inappropriate Work Relations and Events [2]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel (Movies), The Avengers (2012)
Genre: F/M, M/M, Multi, Pepper is an enabler, Polyamory, Steve is not a victim, Tony isn't driving this ship for once
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2012-05-10
Updated: 2012-06-05
Packaged: 2017-11-05 02:40:56
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,227
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/401550
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chaerring/pseuds/Chaerring
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>No one believes Tony when he says it's Pepper's idea.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Planting the Idea

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: None of the characters are mine.
> 
> So, while working on Foreign Teas and TMI I started wondering what might be going on with the rest of the team in this little verse of mine. That, plus my desire to make Pepper the piece in which Steve and Tony hinge on, is what gave birth to this.

The last thing Tony would have told someone he expected to hear Pepper say while they were laying next to each other in bed would be something like: "Let's smoke a joint". Or if not referencing weed in particular, any other mind altering substance would do because she had a policy against all of it. However, what did come out of her mouth while they were basking in post coital bliss one night would have ranked maybe third or fifth on the list of things he hadn't expected to hear from her.

"Tony, we should seduce Steve."

He blinked and turned his head sideways on the pillow to look at her. She wasn't laughing, or even smiling. Instead, she was biting her bottom lip in that way she did when she was going to present him with an idea for the company that she thought he wouldn't like.

"I'm sorry. Could you repeat that? I would have JARVIS play it back, but you said he couldn't record us in the bedroom."

"I said, 'We should seduce Steve'."

"That's what I thought you said."

Pepper turned her whole body sideways to watch him and he couldn't help but feel like he could stare at her exactly the way she was, little crow's feet forming at her eyes, hair mussed, lips slightly swollen from their kisses, and a thousand other little details that made her _Pepper_ forever. If she was anyone else, if he didn't know her as well as he did, he would be afraid that she was telling him he wasn't enough for her, but considering how regularly she complained about him being 'too much' he knew this had to be about something else.

"We both like him, he likes us, and he's lonely."

It never failed to amaze him how much she was always taking care of people besides herself, or how optimistic she was about getting other people to like him.

"I'm pretty sure he likes you a lot more than he likes me, and that even if we were equivalent in his opinion, liking isn't the only requirement for sex in his world."

He'd never have to patent another invention if he had a dime for every time Pepper rolled her eyes at him.

"He likes you a lot, Tony. I know, I've seen you guys together."

Tony could feel his eyebrows sky rocket.

"Really? Because that hasn't happened. Are you having fantasies, Pepper? Is that what this is about? You getting in on the internet Cap/Iron Man shipping sensation?"

He was eighty-nine percent sure her exasperated huff was covering a giggle. Her ears were turning red to support his claim.

" _Tony_. That's not what this is about at all." He hummed as her hands came to smooth along his chest and she pulled herself in close tucking her head under his chin. He loved times like this when she just curled up against him not even minding that his heart beat couldn't be heard for the thrum of the arc reactor. "Just think about it. Let the idea simmer or whatever it is they do in that genius mind of yours. I won't mention it again until you do."

He brought his hand up to poke her shoulder before caressing the long line of her back and counting the gentle bumps of her spine under his calloused fingers.

"What makes you think I'll bring it up again?"

"JARVIS, how many still frames from security are there of Tony pointedly staring at Steve both in and out of uniform?"

"Over 200 in the last month, Ms. Potts. Would you like the total figure for their acquaintance or a more exact figure for the month?"

Tony could admit when he was beat, at least, he could when it was Pepper.

"No, JARVIS. I think she's made her point."

He closed his eyes at her laugh against his skin and didn't open them again.

"Goodnight, Tony."

"Goodnight, Pepper."


	2. A Little Bit of Advice

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Steve asks a friend for advice.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: Characters aren't mine.

Steve liked the coffee shop across from the tower despite the fact that it was a way for SHIELD to keep a better eye on them. He liked it for the atmosphere and the people. SHIELD might have owned it and hired the people that operated it, but somehow the little space had escaped the regimented government feeling that permeated a lot of his life. He figured that was mostly due to the manager, Darcy Lewis. She wasn't really the cheery smiling type like the girls he had once traveled and danced with had been, but she managed to exude a people attracting aura and make her customers just as happy with a snappy turn of phrase or slightly inappropriate joke. 

She always had a large coffee black enough to peel paint ready for him, and she never hesitated to launch into detailed explanations and recommendations to help him understand the world's current culture. She didn't even laugh, and had already asked to buy one of his sketches for her apartment if he ever decided to sell them. In a way that wasn't too painful, her attitude and the way she never hesitated to poke fun at him for things besides being out of his time reminded him a little of Bucky.

That was why when Tony presented him with two tickets to an art gallery and told him to take someone with him Steve went to Darcy about who he could take. 

"Come on, Steve. I know you have someone in mind otherwise you wouldn't have taken both the tickets." 

He watched her lean her hip against the counter and survey the few people left in the coffee shop that late. She was right, though. He did have someone he wanted to take with him. The only person he really talked about art with in a serious manner. Virginia Potts, Pepper, as everyone called her. Steve liked her a lot. She was sharp as a tack and admirably strong, especially for the way she dealt with Tony and the excitement surrounding him, but at the same time she didn't seem to be as _prepared_ for that excitement like Natasha was. 

"I don't think it'd be appropriate."

Darcy's eyebrow climbed somewhere into her hair.

"Why don't you tell me who and I'll tell you whether or not it would be?"

Steve took a glance around the coffee shop and shifted in his chair. He didn't want SHIELD knowing about this. It was his personal life and just because they woke him up and paid his salary didn't mean he had to share that with them. Idly, he angled himself away from where he knew the cameras were and flipped to the page in his sketchbook he had filled with small sketches of Pepper. She'd caught him drawing on the balcony of Tony's office one day and had jokingly said he could use her as a model whenever he wanted. He hoped she wouldn't be offended if she ever found out he'd taken her up on the offer literally.

Darcy leaned over his shoulder to get a good look.

"Oh, her? That wouldn't be inappropriate at all. She loves that sort of thing I've heard and her assistant has been trying to hide the fact that Tony gave the tickets away instead of taking her all week."

Steve flipped his sketchbook closed again and turned to face his friend.

"You're sure? Because where I'm from it wasn't a done thing to ask your friends' girls out, not without asking them too, but Tony gave me the tickets and there's only two. I could give them back to him and tell him she wants to go, but--"

Darcy held up a hand, so he cut himself off.

"She'd probably be insulted that the reason you haven't asked her yet it because you think Tony might get mad and before it crosses your mind, no you should not go ask Tony for permission to ask her out because that would just cause a catastrophe and make her mad at both of you. Your best bet is to ask her to the opening while Tony's around. That way, he knows you're asking her, he knows what she says, but Pepper's also free to make her own decision about going with you."

Steve listened to her advice and considered it fully, even though he had to relate the situation to his screw up with Peggy and Howard before he understood. Pepper would get upset if he went to Tony for permission to take her out, because he would be making the assumption that she belonged to Tony, or she couldn't make up her own mind. If there was one thing he had learned working with women even before he was asleep for so long, it was that they knew their own minds. He nodded when he noticed Darcy's expectant look.

"I can do that."

Her lips quirked sideways and he felt her warm hand ruffle his hair, probably ruining his part as she headed to clear a table.

"So do it."

Steve rolled his eyes and flipped through his sketchbook to the page he had the tickets taped staring at them a moment. Tony had invited him to lunch tomorrow to talk about modifying his bike. If Steve dropped by Pepper's office on his way up, maybe he could convince her to join them and ask then.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Pepper's pulling all of the strings here.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pepper and her work, both personal and professional.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: None of the characters are mine.
> 
> Thank you so much to everyone who's left comments and kudos! 
> 
> And thank you to TheGreatSporkWielder for beta-ing.

Pepper was about to tear her hair out. She was on the verge of hiring half a dozen more people and installing them into a floor of the tower simply so they could answer calls and emails all day about why the Stark Industries’ contact information was not the information to use to get in touch with the Avengers. If things didn't get better, she was going to march into Fury's office herself and force him to put up some sort of hotline for _SHIELD_ to deal with, not Stark Industries. She'd even agree to allow them to route Iron Man specific calls back to SI if only she'd be able to stop getting complaints from her employees about answering phone calls with nothing but Thor's hammer jokes on the other end. 

Then there were the endless investor meetings where she was still fighting the board over the cost of converting the tower from the prototype arc reactor to the permanent one at the end of the year trial period. Loki's interference had put more strain on the prototype than even Tony had planned for, which brought up concerns about it lasting long enough to make the switch. Tony was insisting it would. It left Pepper in the usual position of mediating between them. Nothing she couldn't do, but on top of the Avengers Initiative lifting off for real with their return to New York, it was becoming a little much for even her to handle, not that she'd admit it, ever. 

Pepper was ashamed that she jumped at the sound of a knock on her door. She patted her hair and quickly gave up on putting her desk to order.

"Come in."

Steve's beautiful blond head appeared in her doorway, followed by the rest of him and Pepper let herself really smile for the first time since she'd said good morning to Tony in his workshop that morning. Even if she was wrong and Steve didn't like them as much as they liked him, she was still glad to have met him and become his friend. It didn't matter, though, because Pepper knew she was right. It was easy enough to see from the way Steve and Tony lit up in each other's presence. They brought out the best and the worst in each other, exactly like she and Tony had done to each other for years. All that was left for her to do was finish maneuvering them into realizing it themselves. 

The tickets to the museum were her first gambit. Either it'd work or it wouldn't, but judging by Steve's presence in her office, it was working. She knew about the tickets, had known about them before Tony had and when he had idly mentioned giving something to Steve for his part in solving the fiasco Tony had caused with Bruce, she had offered them up. Tony instantly knew she was planning something; but that was alright, she wanted him to know. Tony and Steve finally getting their acts together was the goal, after all. 

"Hey, Pepper. Is this a bad time? I was just about to make sure Tony got some lunch and was hoping you had the time to come, too." 

She looked around at her desk and the emails piling up in her inbox, feeling more than a little desperate for not the first time that week. 

"If you want I can bring you something back--"

Steve sounded _disappointed_ and that, more than anything else, was what made Pepper plant her hands on her desk and stand before grabbing her purse. She was only a mortal woman, and knew it'd take a far stronger one than her to be able to deal with a disappointed Steve Rogers. 

"It's nothing that won't still be here when I come back."

His responding grin was completely worth the fact that she wouldn't get up to her and Tony's apartment until after nine o'clock that night for taking a break at this point.


End file.
